It’s official. The appointments committee of the cabinet has approved the proposal to make Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi the Drugs Controller General of India – the top health regulatory job in the country.
The DCGI is the head of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), which is the apex drug regulatory body that monitors medicines, vaccines, and medical devices. Raghuvanshi replaces VG Somani who took charge on August 14, 2019.
It is an extremely critical position for regulating manufacturing, import, and sales of medical products in India as well as the quality of exports to other countries.
In his last assignment, Raghuvanshi served as the secretary-cum-scientific director of the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), and is known for his “problem-solving approach” among his peers and juniors.
“Good boss”, “sorted personality”, “humble”, “solution-oriented”, “scientific”, “tech-savvy”, and “nationalist” are a few other traits his colleagues and peers recall about him.
‘Popular in college’
Always a bright student, he completed his schooling in Varanasi and his graduation, postgraduate studies in pharmacy at Banaras Hindu University. He did his PhD at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi.
GN Singh, former DCGI who was the senior of Raghuvanshi at the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, told News18.com that he is very happy with the selection.
“Raghuvanshi will do justice with this crucial position,” he said.
Singh said that Raghuvanshi’s overall idea has always been to bring India’s quality of medicines on par with global standards. “And now, he is the one who is at the helm for steering India towards the same.”
He was the topper of his batch at BHU, a popular personality in college, and a strong voice on the quality of medicines in India, he said.
Another government official, who has worked with Raghuvanshi during his stint at Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, calls him a “technocrat” and “lover of science”.
“He is fond of the latest technologies and keeps himself updated even beyond the world of pharmaceuticals and healthcare. For him, everything revolves around science,” he said while recalling that the majority of his conversations with Raghuvanshi have either focused on science or the quality of drug making. “He has always been known as a good boss who believes in teamwork.”
A believer in teamwork, Raghuvanshi commented on a LinkedIn post, “…It is always teamwork. Unless a positive response does not come, we can not become successful leaders. (sic)”
Raghuvanshi actively participates in several groups on social media platforms which discuss the quality of medicines.
“There are around 900 members on a WhatsApp group where people from pharma and quality control background talk to each other. Raghuvanshi is part of the same group and he is one of the most important and active voices which comes up with the most intelligent suggestions,” said Amit Jindal, quality control manager at Baddi-based Sriram Healthcare, who is part of groups on Telegram and WhatsApp with Raghuvanshi.
First DCGI from corporate world
The position of Drugs Controller General of India has always been held by people with backgrounds in government jobs or top heads of public sector units. But with Raghuvanshi, it is the first time that the DCGI comes with rich experience in private pharmaceutical companies in India along with holding positions in government organisations.
“All prior DCGIs have had a background of government jobs,” Dr Appaji PV, retired director general, Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) pointed out.
For instance, the previous DCGI, VG Somani, came from a regulatory background, whereas his predecessor GN Singh served as director of the Central Indian Pharmacopoeia Laboratory and then other government posts.
Previous to him, Dr Surinder Singh served on several posts at institutes under the ministry of health and family welfare.
“Raghuvanshi’s rich corporate experience will help fix the loopholes in the regulatory environment as he will be very well aware of all of those. Alongside, he will be able to create an enabling environment for pharma companies,” Appaji said.
According to Raghuvanshi’s LinkedIn profile, he worked for seven years at the National Institute of Immunology and then moved to join the poster boy of the pharmaceutical industry, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.
“I was part of multiple complex generic development projects for the US, EU, RoW (rest of the world) and India markets. Gained in-depth knowledge of generic development, scale-up and technology transfer, validation batches, commercial launches etc (sic),” it reads.
He left Ranbaxy as director of the company’s research laboratories to join another drugmaker, Dr Reddy’s.
There he was leading the research and development team responsible for the creation of innovative formulations for Indian and global markets. He was also part of multiple successful international alliances.
“Providing motivational leadership, change management, knowledge management, building talent pool etc. was part of my leadership role,” he wrote in his profile.
After spending more than a decade at Dr Reddy’s, Raghuvanshi was appointed secretary-cum-scientific director of the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC).
“He left his well-settled, well-earning corporate job to take up a responsible position at IPC,” Singh, who is a former DCGI, said while adding that this reflects his “values, morals and love for the nation”.
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